I really, really liked the UDL Lesson Plan Builder. It truly made me focus on the development of my lesson plan. I have never put as much thought into each of the parts of learning as I did when I used the guided form. I always tie my lesson to a goal and attempt to have a "hook", but this was much more focused. I think that if I built every lesson this way that my students' learning would be more focused and goal oriented than the way our team currently plans. Some of the pop-ups were difficult to use, and the state standards would not link for science. Other than that, the experience was extremely beneficial. I am actually doing this lesson in my class tomorrow. The only drawback is that you can't share your lesson plan directly from the lesson builder. This would be a great feature to have.
Unit: 2 weeks, Lesson: 30-45 minutes depending on extentions
Subject Area:
Biology
Unit Description:
Ecology: Flow of energy through an ecosystem and trophic levels of a food chain or food web.
Lesson Description for Day:
Demonstrate the flow of energy in an ecosystem using the 10 percent rule. Students will be parts of the ecosystem in a food chain and demonstrate the flow of energy using a liquid beaker containing 1000 Kcals of "green" energy. Top of Form
State Standards:
TEK 12 A-F 12) Science concepts. The student knows that interdependence and interactions occur within an environmental system. The student is expected to:
(A) interpret relationships, including predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, and competition among organisms;
(B) compare variations and adaptations of organisms in different ecosystems;
(C) analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various models, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids;
(D) recognize that long-term survival of species is dependent on changing resource bases that are limited;
(E) describe the flow of matter through the carbon and nitrogen cycles and explain the consequences of disrupting these cycles; and
(F) describe how environmental change can impact ecosystem stability.
Goals
Unit Goals:
Can students answer and understand the following Guided Questions:
(District provided goals and objectives)
1. Explain how food chains, food webs, and food pyramids model how energy flows through the trophic levels of an ecosystem, and how the rule of ten applies. 12 E
2. How do water, carbon and nitrogen cycle among the biotic and abiotic parts of the ecosystem? 12 A, B
3. Describe and identify the symbiotic interactions among organisms. 12B
4. Explain the process of ecological succession. 12 E
5. How do biotic and abiotic factors affect population size? 12 D
Lesson Goals:
Explain how food chains, food webs and food pyramids model the flow of energy through trophic levels of an ecosystem.
Explain how the rule of ten applies.
Methods
Anticipatory Set:
Ask students where they get their energy from? Where does the energy from that food come from? And where does that come from? Get students to discuss it and come up with a "chain" of their energy source.
Introduce and Model New Knowledge:
Ask for four volunteers from the classroom. Each student wears one label: Grass, Prairie Dog, Ferret, Fox
Pass out labels: Producer (1), Consumer (3)
Ask students to order the "chain".
After the food chain is ordered, then have students add the labels for producers and consumers.
Next, pour 1000 liters of coke into a container. As you pass the jar down the chain, each student can only take 10% from the person before them. Student one begins with 1000, student two has 100, three 10, four 1. As you are doing this, ask students what is more energy efficient: being a vegetarian or carnivore? Why would you want to eat both meat and vegtables? What effect would it have on your food chain energy levels if part of a population were destroyed? (Take away half of the ferrets energy) Would the fox survive?
Lastly, have students decide which animals are primary and secondary consumers, heterotrophs and autotrophs.
Provide Guided Practice:
Students should choose a biome that interests them and create a food chain within their ecosystem. Students will need computers to search animals and ecosystems. Students should label four animals from autotroph to heterotrophs, identify consumers and producers, and order them by class of consumer. Food chains should be done on butcher paper and each group will present their food chain.
Provide Independent Practice:
As part of an ongoing ecosystem project, students will create a food chain for their own project's ecosystem. This will be integrated into their project presentations.
Assessment
Formative/Ongoing
Student created food web for ecosystem on butcher paper.
Ongoing: Ecosystem projects. Students will add a food chain for their biome.
Summative/End Of Lesson
TAKS Benchmark on Ecology TEK 12 A-F
Materials
Construction paper, glue, scissors, signs, coke, computers
I really, really liked the UDL Lesson Plan Builder. It truly made me focus on the development of my lesson plan. I have never put as much thought into each of the parts of learning as I did when I used the guided form. I always tie my lesson to a goal and attempt to have a "hook", but this was much more focused. I think that if I built every lesson this way that my students' learning would be more focused and goal oriented than the way our team currently plans. Some of the pop-ups were difficult to use, and the state standards would not link for science. Other than that, the experience was extremely beneficial. I am actually doing this lesson in my class tomorrow. The only drawback is that you can't share your lesson plan directly from the lesson builder. This would be a great feature to have.
Lesson Plan:
CAST’s UDL LESSON BUILDER
Lesson Overview
Top of Form
12) Science concepts. The student knows that interdependence and interactions occur within an environmental system. The student is expected to:
(A) interpret relationships, including predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, and competition among organisms;
(B) compare variations and adaptations of organisms in different ecosystems;
(C) analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various models, including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids;
(D) recognize that long-term survival of species is dependent on changing resource bases that are limited;
(E) describe the flow of matter through the carbon and nitrogen cycles and explain the consequences of disrupting these cycles; and
(F) describe how environmental change can impact ecosystem stability.
Goals
(District provided goals and objectives)
1. Explain how food chains, food webs, and food pyramids model how energy flows through the trophic levels of an ecosystem, and how the rule of ten applies. 12 E
2. How do water, carbon and nitrogen cycle among the biotic and abiotic parts of the ecosystem? 12 A, B
3. Describe and identify the symbiotic interactions among organisms. 12B
4. Explain the process of ecological succession. 12 E
5. How do biotic and abiotic factors affect population size? 12 D
Explain how the rule of ten applies.
Methods
Pass out labels: Producer (1), Consumer (3)
Ask students to order the "chain".
After the food chain is ordered, then have students add the labels for producers and consumers.
Next, pour 1000 liters of coke into a container. As you pass the jar down the chain, each student can only take 10% from the person before them. Student one begins with 1000, student two has 100, three 10, four 1. As you are doing this, ask students what is more energy efficient: being a vegetarian or carnivore? Why would you want to eat both meat and vegtables? What effect would it have on your food chain energy levels if part of a population were destroyed? (Take away half of the ferrets energy) Would the fox survive?
Lastly, have students decide which animals are primary and secondary consumers, heterotrophs and autotrophs.
Assessment
Ongoing: Ecosystem projects. Students will add a food chain for their biome.
Materials